I think you have to take Roger Glover's post with a big pinch of salt. Back in the '70s he was running his 4001 through Marshall Superbass heads into shallow, un-ported cabs. He was competing with a bassy guitar tone and a bassy organ tone through a backline of flabby non-master-volume tube amps into woefully inefficient flabby cabinets, at deafening volume. His rig, for all of its bluster, probably didn't reproduce the fundamental of the E string very well. I used to collect Mk2 Purple bootlegs, and some of them are just a wall of mud with some yelling over the top. Quite cool in a gonzo-esque way, but definitely not the recipe for good stage sound.
Listen to Roger's Vigier tone. That is the tone that Roger was trying to get, and failing. He was wanting to remove all the distortion from his tone. Like Geezer Butler, Roger is famous for a tone he wasn't actually happy with early on. I think Roger's Vigier tone sounds like an entry-level Ibanez Soundgear plugged into an entry-level Behringer DI box, not that it matters... that is clearly where his ears were hunting at in the '70s.
I think it makes modern Purple sound like a bloodless function band, but again that is just me!
There is absolutely no reason a Rickenbacker should have a weak E string if properly set up with the necessary care and attention. There is a pickup right down at the end of the neck that captures all the low end you would ever need. I think strings might be a critical factor here. Roger was probably a Rotosound man in the '70s, which wouldn't be considered the best string for the job today. Rotos were probably made with the same care and attention as British cars in the '70s (shots fired!) so were probably inconsistently wound and packaged up with minimal QC in place.
Listen to Roger's Vigier tone. That is the tone that Roger was trying to get, and failing. He was wanting to remove all the distortion from his tone. Like Geezer Butler, Roger is famous for a tone he wasn't actually happy with early on. I think Roger's Vigier tone sounds like an entry-level Ibanez Soundgear plugged into an entry-level Behringer DI box, not that it matters... that is clearly where his ears were hunting at in the '70s.
I think it makes modern Purple sound like a bloodless function band, but again that is just me!
There is absolutely no reason a Rickenbacker should have a weak E string if properly set up with the necessary care and attention. There is a pickup right down at the end of the neck that captures all the low end you would ever need. I think strings might be a critical factor here. Roger was probably a Rotosound man in the '70s, which wouldn't be considered the best string for the job today. Rotos were probably made with the same care and attention as British cars in the '70s (shots fired!) so were probably inconsistently wound and packaged up with minimal QC in place.
